Hey, I've been turning an old field into an l-shaped food plot. It's about 90 yards on a side, no more than twenty yards wide. Last year I tilled half and planted it in winter peas,vetch, and oats with pockets of clover and forage turnips, and last week I killed and tilled most of the other side and planted biologic winter bulbs and sugar beets, as well as over seeding the remaining grass with imperial clover, and planting clover or secret spot on the old roads leading to and from the field. I have a stand in the maple in the upper right. I've also been trying to clean up some old apple trees off the north edge of the field, and plant a few new ones. The space inside the L is beech forest, and there are dozens of rub scarred trees, including this one... I hunted the plot some last year, but I am feeling more confident in my stand locations and plantings this year. I did see a nice three year old just at the end of shooting light last year, and already have pictures of more bucks this year during daylight, so my hopes are high! Any advice is much appreciated.
Swamp to the north, descending slight ridge through forest to the east, a band of old fields ( the one shown has paths mown,but the rest doesn't ) runs east west to the south. Last season I shot two does in a pocket off these old fields to the south, and have two new slightly tweaked stand locations in that area as well. I'm trying to draw in bucks who I believe are bedding on a bench on the edge of the swamp to the northeast, as well as some of the traffic that moves through the other fields. I plan to hunt the plot on winds out of the north and northeast, anything else alerts deer I think.
Looking good. The only thing I look for is bullet-proof entry and exit so I can slip in from a downwind side and exit quickly and quietly knowing deer may be entering the field as I am leaving after dark.
I think that's why I was less successful last year. I had my stand at the east end of the food plot near a scrape and where I thought bucks were entering, but to get into it I had to walk the length of the plot. My stand now is on the west end near the point, with houses and a road behind me to block deer from circling downwind, if I hunt on the right days ( wind out of the east, se, ne) my scent should never enter the plot. Mock scrape 15yds from stand.
Should I trim some of the overhanging branches to let more sun in on the edges, or do deer like the shady spots?
